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Defense Budget Alert

Part of President Trump's plan to use Defense Department funds to construct a wall on the southwestern border is likely to require congressional approval, meaning Democrats would have the power to block it at the committee level.

Democrats in Congress say they are eager to learn which military construction projects will go unfunded so President Trump can divert $3.6 billion to build a wall on the southwestern border following his declaration of a national emergency.

President Trump will declare a national emergency today to use $3.6 billion in Defense Department military construction funds to build a wall on the southwestern border. Additionally, he will seek to reprogram $2.5 billion to DOD's drug interdiction account from other unidentified Pentagon sources.

The Defense Department's base budget would have to reach $735 billion by 2033 -- an 11 percent increase from the topline projected for 2023 -- if it is to cover the spending plan the Pentagon envisions, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-OK) said this week he would back the Pentagon if it submitted a budget requesting a massively inflated warfighting account intended to skirt statutory spending caps, but his Democratic counterpart Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) opposes the move on the grounds that it is a "dramatic retreat . . . from common sense and good government."

The Defense Department is preparing to ask Congress for an increase of more than $100 billion in its controversial warfighting account to skirt a mandatory budget cap, but some government officials are worried it will only further the account's appearance as a slush fund.

The Pentagon expects to submit its fiscal year 2020 budget to Congress in March, more than a month later than previously planned because of delays driven by the longest federal shutdown in U.S. history, according to two government officials.

The Pentagon is in discussions with the White House Office of Management and Budget on whether the upcoming defense budget will request money for a southern border wall in fiscal year 2020 and information is beginning to leak to Washington think tankers and other insiders.

The Defense Department stands ready to transfer billions in spoken-for military construction funds should President Trump declare a national emergency and order the building of a wall on the southern border, though doing so would mean canceling or deferring existing projects prized in both red and blue congressional districts.

The Government Accountability Office has outlined a number of paths the Defense Department could take to reform its controversial warfighting budget -- the Overseas Contingency Operations account -- but says the Pentagon has yet to decide a course of action as it finalizes its fiscal year 2020 budget amid the renewed onset of statutory budget caps and expected Capitol Hill gridlock.

The more than $25 billion in spending the Army is set to propose canceling, reducing or consolidating across the Pentagon's new five-year spending plan will be "backloaded," the service's secretary said today.

A mandatory audit of major weapon system programs turned up no cost growth in fiscal year 2018, which means the Office of the Secretary of Defense did not impose a penalty tax -- for a fourth consecutive year -- on any of the military services as required by law.

The Pentagon is preparing to delay the Feb. 4 rollout of its fiscal year 2020 budget request because of the ongoing partial government shutdown, now in its 25th day, according to government officials with knowledge of the matter.

Acting Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist said today the Defense Department has a final budget topline for fiscal year 2020, but would not say what it is amid comments from Pentagon sources saying it will likely be $750 billion.

Rep. Mac Thornberry (TX), the top-ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said today he opposes any plan that would use Defense Department funds to construct a wall on the southern border, per an option that has been floated by President Trump.

Just a week ago the Pentagon was scheduled to receive a $50 billion Christmas presentfrom President Trump, but the future of the defense budget has been called into question as he has ordered a speedier-than-expected exit for Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and a surprise promotion for Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan.